CVS announced on Monday that its makeup marketing and promotional displays will no longer allow images to be manipulated. Applications and software used for photo manipulation, such as Photoshop, have been banned from use in the company's products. For other brands carried in CVS stores, the company has vowed to put a Warning Label on these products to ensure that the customer knows the image has been altered.
Taking it a step further, CVS has issued a statement calling for all of the brands that they sell to cease photo manipulations by 2020. Repercussions for not adhering to this company policy may result in these other brands having their products labeled as manipulated images.
What's the big deal?
CVS Pharmacy President Helena Foulkes made the announcement on Monday to the National Retail Federation, a convention held in New York. She stated that retouched images are harmful to society due to "unrealistic body images." As the largest drugstore chain in the United States, CVS has set high standards for itself by putting the health of its customers above their relationships with certain brands.
Foulkes stated that if other brands choose to continue using photo alterations, then the customers should be aware of that. According to Jennifer Berger, the executive director of About-Face, young women may develop Eating Disorders due to unrealistic body expectations that stem from such altered images.
The National Eating Disorders Association seems to back up this claim with statistics that show that approximately 30 million Americans suffer from an eating disorder.
Big changes
CVS currently carries numerous brands in their cosmetics section. Procter & Gamble, Johnson & Johnson, L'Oreal, Unilever, CoverGirl, Revlon, and Maybelline are some of their biggest suppliers.
These companies are well known for their beauty campaigns. Advertisements featuring perfected models can be seen every day on television and in magazines. Close-ups of skin without pores is one of the biggest problems when it comes to these images. "No woman's face looks like that," Berger said.
With such high pressure from this mega-chain drugstore and social media, it seems as though many beauty companies will need to seriously consider changing their marketing tactics.
Revlon is onboard with the changes. John Collier, the company's president in North America, stated in an email that the company supports CVS' mission. Other brands have the next two years to follow suit or be branded as "digitally modified" when their images are retouched.
